One of my crazier near Darwin Adventures happened in the back country of Jackson Hole. It was right after a weeklong series of big dumps in March. There was already a great foundation and all the ugly stuff had long been covered up. Well, there's this one cliff that's about 30 feet that I'd been wanting to jump off of ever since I got to Jackson Hole. This day was the day I did it. I got a good start and went sailing off the cliff, landing in a deep pocket of powder. I landed it perfectly, but freaked out and crashed shortly afterwards, tumbling like a rag doll. A guy that saw me do it said he saw the bottoms of my skis at least three times followed by a big poof and then I disappeared buried in the powder. I didn't know which way was up. Fortunately, I felt gravity and started wiggling around to get my skis under me so I could stand up. Amazingly they hadn't released. A snorkel would've really helped at this moment, because the snow was over my head. I had to raise my arms above my head and stick my poles out to finally get the snow to fall to the side and see light. Next, I had to step backwards in the tunnel I'd created to climb out. Awesome, but I don't think I'll be doing it any time again.

My best near Darwin nomination was going out of bounds solo in blizzard conditions at the end of the day. I'd been skiing in great powder all day long, but was just a little upset that it'd been getting tracked up by fellow powder hounds. I was looking for a great way to end the day, so I called a friend and asked him if he'd pick me up at the bottom of the Palisades and he said sure. So, I went and ski'd it. I went ripping through the trees and dropped down 3000 vertical feet in pristine conditions. Not a track to be seen anywhere! Turns out luck was on my side and nothing happened. Just 20 minutes of sheer delight.

Then there was the avalanche I was in at Squaw on the 11th of May. Ten inches of heavy spring snow had fallen the night before and I was going down an untracked spot near the Granite Chief chair when the mountain just let loose and about a second later, I was 100 feet further down. This was heavy stuff that would've moved anything in its way. Fortunately, I was at the top of it and just when down with it. I got up, got my ski's out from the snow and ski'd off.

Finally, there's a super steep spot that's past two cliff signs that I was finally brave enough to go check out. I launch off the top and my ski tips just get stuck in the snow parallel to the mountain and I do a sideways face plant because it's so steep that my shoulder is touching the mountain. I look down and I've still got both ski's on, which is good, because it would've been really ugly otherwise. So, I wiggle out, jump up in the air to spin around 180 degrees and off I go. Yeah!!